No longer a "wave", but a "tidal wave".
In hearing before the National Assembly this Thursday, to defend the bill on the vaccine pass and the tools for managing the health crisis, Olivier Véran declared that 208,000 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the past 24 hours .
A new record, as the virus takes advantage of winter conditions and the arrival of the Omicron variant.
With a few hours ahead of the French Public Health statements unveiled at the end of the afternoon, the Minister of Health thus described a particularly worrying epidemic situation: “Every second in our country, more than two French people are diagnosed positive for Covid-19.
We have never experienced such a situation, ”assured Olivier Véran.
The Minister of Health repeated to the deputies who are members of the law committee that there was an urgent need to adopt the bill making it possible to transform the health pass into a vaccination pass, to prevent this avalanche of contamination from being reflected in a tsunami. hospitalizations, putting a little more strain on a particularly tested hospital system.
1 million positive, 10% of contact cases
Monday, December 27, at a press conference following the Health Defense Council, Olivier Véran explained that there were “two simultaneous waves” of coronavirus.
Delta and the Omicron variant, "at least three times more contagious", which risks causing an epidemic of contact cases.
A situation that he did not fail to recall this Thursday.
In front of the deputies, the minister indeed defended the relaxation of the duration of the isolation, announced by Jean Castex at the beginning of the week: "There are probably more than a million French positive for the coronavirus currently", a- he indicated, before adding: "with 10% of French people in contact, we cannot deprive France of the continuity of operation of public and private services".
Preliminary studies tend to show that the variant causes fewer severe forms and fewer hospitalizations than Delta.
"There would be a drop of 50 to 70% in hospitalizations with Omicron", estimates Olivier Véran, without reassuring himself: "have a variant which is 3 times less dangerous, but that you have 6 or 7 times more cases, l 'health impact is being felt anyway'.
A call for vaccination
The Minister considers that the best weapon against this situation remains vaccination: "I say it to those who are watching us and who would not be vaccinated: there is really little chance that you can pass between the drops.
The circulation of the virus is too strong, ”he says.
About 5.5 million adults are still not vaccinated against Covid-19.
If the profiles of the French who refuse the injunction are varied, divided into several categories, Olivier Véran sees in certain refusals, the most extreme, "a form of protest that can sometimes take on the appearance not far from a form of delirium".
The unvaccinated population is over-represented in hospitals.
According to a Drees report dated December 24, “there are 9 times more critical care entries among unvaccinated people than among those vaccinated”.
Thus, if some people remain indifferent to vaccination, despite these figures, the minister hopes that the adoption of the vaccination pass will convince them to take the plunge.